Watchdog: Fire Department OT wipes out furlough savings

July 06, 2010

Soaring overtime pay to dozens of high-level Chicago Fire Department employees wiped out the savings Mayor Richard Daley sought when he made them take unpaid days off, the city's top watchdog reported today.

Last year, 50 fire workers not covered by the union contract collected $311,180 in overtime -- nearly 17 times as much as they got in 2008, Inspector General Joseph Ferguson found.

And if the pace for this year continues, those employees would be paid $765,175 in overtime, the report concluded.

"The city appears to be hemorrhaging funds due to the liberal and comparatively standardless award of this ... overtime pay," the report stated. "Moreover, there is a direct correlation between the 2009 spike in payment of overtime and the imposition of increased furlough days."

Ferguson's findings listed a number of possible explanations for the spike in overtime pay. Some, including scheduling issues and higher numbers of people on sick leave, were benign. Others, such as the "rank abuse of overtime" and "an attempt to circumvent the unpaid furlough mandate," were more serious.

New Fire Commissioner Robert Hoff, who was the first deputy commissioner when he wrote a June 21 response letter to a draft of the report, attributed much of the overtime to manpower shortages.

Overtime pay for non-union employees was particularly low in 2008 -- the year the report used as a comparison, Hoff's letter stated. "The overtime has been relatively high in the past, dropped sharply in 2008, and has now increased again because of manpower shortages," Hoff wrote.

The report also noted that 18 deputy district chiefs last year made nearly $118,000 in overtime to administer oral tests to firefighters trying to become lieutenants. Higher pay for holidays last year also increased by tens of thousands of dollars, Ferguson concluded.

Some non-union employees were paid time-and-a-half for overtime hours on several occasions when they should not have been, the report stated, recommending that the city look into recovering those funds. "We agree and have done this," Hoff's letter stated.

The report analyzed the overtime and holiday pay for non-union employees including district chiefs, their deputies, assistant deputy chief paramedics and several other higher level positions.

The unpaid furlough days, as well as other unpaid days off, are part of Daley's attempt to save money in the tough economy.